AN: Hey guys… thanks for the reviews! Less then what I got for the very first chapter, but the reviews were great nonetheless.
This chapter is kind of to show you what Piper and Leo's relationship looks like at the moment… Even some glimpses to the past (Muahahaha!). Sorry.
About my comment last chapter that Brie will not be Leo's daughter, I didn't mean to offend anyone by it! I didn't say it against any of you that suggested the idea, I thought of it myself actually. I would have written that even if none of you would have mentioned it. So no hard feeling guys, I wasn't aiming and offending any of you!
About Piper and Leo and their affairs while she was married; they only had one, the rest were before her marriage (the chapter will explore more on that).
Chapter 3
OoO Things He Didn't Know About Her OoO
Three Halliwell sisters were sitting around a small round table in a café downtown.
Piper reached over to where Brie's stroller was to cover her more tightly with the blanket laying over her.
"Are you sure you've made the right decision?" Prue's voice asked.
Piper looked up.
"No." She answered simply, getting back to her tea.
Prue was talking about Piper's announcement of going to Milan. With Leo. Wyatt.
"I say she should go for it. She'll get to kick Tony's ass." Phoebe said, winking.
"Phoebe, we don't 'Kick Ass' in court. We win a case."
"Put it however you'd like Piper. Maybe this is what you need to get over that jerk." Phoebe suggested.
"She's already over him, Phoebe." Prue argued.
"No she's not."
"Of course she is."
"She's not! Look at her." Both sisters turned to look at the middle child.
Piper, only then catching up, said; "I'm over him".
"See?" Prue teased.
"Liar." Phoebe concluded, and they all took a long slip of their teas and coffees.
"And anyway… Leo Wyatt will be there with you the whole way. Leo Wyatt! Piper, I thought he was out of the door. Do you really want to bring back all these… memories?"
Piper sighed.
"It was all a long time ago Prue. We've both… moved on. He might be married for all I know."
"No he's not." Phoebe pointed out.
"And you know this why?"
"He was on the list of the twenty bachelors of the month." Phoebe said simply.
Damn it. Damn him
"Look, Prue, I understand where your concern is coming from, I really do… but I've already agreed to this."
"You didn't sign anything, you can still back out." Prue pointed out.
Piper gave her a long stare.
"Ok. Ok. If this is what you want to do, I won't argue with the best." Prue said and offered a smiled.
"Thank you. Now, my only problem is Brie; I'll only be gone for three days tops, but I still need someone to watch over her. I think I'll hire a nanny; I've already got someone on my mind. I can't leave all the responsibility on Grams." Piper pondered aloud.
"She can stay with me." Prue offered as a matter of fact.
"Prue…"
"Really! Andy is working on this huge case right now; I won't have much going on. Nothing important at work either; I don't have any shootings scheduled until late next week."
"Sounds like a good idea to me…" Phoebe offered.
"Are you sure?" Piper asked. "She won't let you sleep at night you know."
Prue smiled. "Don't worry. And grams will be coming over a lot too, I'm sure. It's only for three days – how hard can it be?"
Piper burst laughing.
"Really Piper… And anyway, we've been considering having kids of our own sometime; this could be a great experience!" Prue said, now very excited.
"Oh, alright then. Just don't kill my kid. Make sure she doesn't kill you either."
--OoO--
He slipped the ice cold water on his table, and looked at his watch.
Piper was only late by a bit, but Leo was surprised. She was never late.
They set up a meeting in a restaurant to plan out their trip to Milan. It was a restaurant they've been in before years ago, the same one they kept meeting at while they were working together on the case that brought them both to the top.
Leo tapped on the glass with his finger, theb picked it up to stare at the clean water.
Through it, he saw a familiar figure being escorted towards him by the butler.
He put the glass down, and there she was.
She was wearing a long-sleeved white buttoned shirt, sitting tightly around her upper body, caressing her waist and chest. It was neatly tucked into a black knee-length skirt. On top of that was a brownish-black knee-length leather jacket. The back high-heal shoes finished off the perfect look.
It was the outfit she'd usually be wearing for work, but in that kind of a restaurant, that's what everyone was wearing. About 90 percent of the clients were for business diners.
The butler pulled up a chair for her, and she took it, thanking him.
"We'll have a bottle of red dry wine. Give me your best." Leo said, and the butler left to get their order.
Piper smirked at him.
"You're late…" He said, teasing.
"I was held up at home. I'm sure you didn't mind waiting." Piper said.
Her hair was not up like it usually is, and it awfully reminded him of the mornings he would wake up next to her, her perfectly straight hair everywhere, it's touch was so sweet…
"No, I didn't. How are you Piper?" He asked casually.
"Can't complain. You were right about the Havana case. As always." She said.
Leo smiled. "I hope you didn't have your doubts in me. Or yourself."
"Our very best wine." The butler interrupted.
Two goblets were filed with the dark red liquid.
Leo took a slip of his, and saw Piper hesitate, and only gulp just a bit of it before putting it down.
"That's odd. I think I remember well, and dry red wine is your favorite." Leo said.
"It is. I'm lowering it with the alcohol." She said, never looking at him.
"You? 'Lowering it on the alcohol'?" Leo almost teased.
Piper, seeming irritated, cleared her throat.
"Right, sorry, none of my business."
They made their orders and continued with the back and forth playful snapping. Some things never change.
The conversation quickly turned to discuss their target. They decided to get tickets to Milan for Friday which was two days away.
"Now, Piper, if I may ask… why won't you go for more then three days? You don't have to explain anything to me, but the longer our stay will last the larger head start we will get. I was actually planning on spending two weeks there."
Piper glared at him. She had something to tell him, he could see that.
"You can stay longer…" Piper suggested.
"Martini will come back will be coming here, no point in staying in Italy when he's in San Francisco. No one will want to talk to us without him anyway." Leo reminded.
"I know." She said.
"Are you absolutely sure that three days is the tops?" Leo tried again.
Piper let out a sigh. "Leo, you remember how I told you that things are different now?"
"Of course they are."
"I can't leave home for long. I can't leave my daughter for more then three days." Piper stated, and raised her fork to her mouth, her eyes looking down at her plate.
A daughter? That was a shocking one.
"A daughter ha? I had no idea. How old is she?" Leo asked.
"About three months."
Wow. How come he didn't hear about it then? Wait… she divorced Tony about… half a year ago? That made no sense…
"Tony's daughter?" Leo asked, thinking that it might now have been his if they divorced.
"Who else?"
"Right. Is that why you divorced?" Leo asked, knowing he was invading her private bubble. But he wanted to know.
"Yes. That was one of the reasons."
Leo nodded. He always thought Tony Granolas was a bastard. That right there only proved his point.
He remembered that night about… 18 or so months ago. It seemed so close now. They were both in a party organized by that time's top lawyer. They bumped into each other after being apart for too long. She was already married to Tony by then.
She hasn't talked to anyone that night, and she was usually the center of the conversations. He walked up to her and offered her to go outside. He found out the she's just had a fight with Tony that night; she wouldn't tell him what was it about. But when they decided to go back inside she grabbed his shirt, and pulled him down for a long, effective kiss. He drove her to his place, and she spent the night in his embrace. God, how he missed her.
"Earth to Leo…" Piper's voice came, and Leo realized he was smiling.
He quickly wiped the smile away, and tried to remember what they were talking about.
"Right, sorry. We need the paper work. Do you have it?" Leo asked.
"Oh, that… I think I left it at my place after I made a few phone calls to Milan… But we'll need if for tonight, won't we?"
"I think so. I set up a meeting with the boss at eight. He wants to hear our plans."
"Right. We can pass by my house on the way to his office." Piper offered.
"We'll do that then."
He followed her car as she was driving it down the street.
The very last house down the street was hers. She pressed the button and opened the gate, and they both drove into the round parking place.
She got out of her car and waited for him to, then led him up the stairs to the grand house. It was almost as huge as his.
She opened the wooden double doors, and the first thing that caught Leo's attention was not the interesting stylish design of the house, but the baby toys scattered everywhere.
Leo could tell that this house was designed for a rich couple; with a bar planted against the right wall, and a dark red carpet that makes you want to walk on it barefoot. Maybe even have sex on it. The ceiling was high, made completely out of some kind of light wood. There were huge paintings everywhere, all in the same style of colorful shapes that formed into a woman, or a musical instrument, or just something that enchanted you but you couldn't figure it out.
The colorful playpen, the light green stroller, and the little toys lying around were defiantly out of place, yet they turned the picture upside down, making the room seem homey and cozy.
"Piper darling? Is that you?" An extremely familiar voice asked.
Leo spun around after Piper, and saw as Mrs. Halliwell, Or 'Grams' - as Piper used to call her, walked into the room with a tiny baby in her arms.
Leo didn't even know humans could be that small…
"Hey Grams." Piper said, putting her leather jacket away.
"Leo." Grams finally noticed him.
She was staring at him like he was the devil which she despised.
"Good evening, Mrs. Halliwell. It's great to see you again." Leo said, flashing a smiled, trying to break the ice.
"I'm sure." She said, and turned back to Piper, who was now advancing towards the little girl in her grandmother's arms.
"I forgot to grab a few things we'll need for tonight's meeting. Has she been a good girl?" Piper asked.
Grams cracked a smile for the first time and handed the girl to Piper.
"We won't be long." Piper said, and headed to another room.
Leo followed.
She opened the door to her office with her free hand and turned the lights on. The girl she put in yet another playpen.
"What's her name?" Leo asked, staring down at her, while her mother started opening various cabinets, looking for the papers they needed.
"Brianna. We call her Brie." Piper smiled, and took out a green file. "Here it is. I'll just make sure it's all here…" She put her reading glasses on and started ruffling through the papers.
Leo walked closer to the playpen. Brie's big brown eyes (which gave away who her mother was) were staring right at him as if she was about to comment on something.
"What?" Leo asked aloud.
"Ha?" Piper asked, looking up. "Were you just talking to Brie?"
"She was staring at me. I thought she wanted something." Leo confessed. Piper stared at him like he was from a mad house, and burst laughing. Obviously he came out as the infantile one.
"She's three months old Leo, she stares at anything."
"I knew that." Leo said, stepping away from the baby before he could say anything dumb again and took a glimpse at the papers. "Everything in there?"
"Seems like it. Let me just take Brie back to Grams and we'll be on our way. Help yourself to anything in the frig." Piper said, gesturing to the small drink bar with a tiny frig, and shoving the grin file in his hands. She took the girl back to her arms and started talking to her in a small voice, then walked out of the office.
Leo walked around the grand dark wooden desk and turned the desk light on. He started looking through the pictures on the table. About three of them were of Brie, others were Brie with Piper. Two of them were Piper with her sisters Prue and Phoebe, who he remembered very well. They were hard to forget. On was of a woman Leo guessed to be Piper's mother, who he remembered died when she was a kid.
One photograph, however, was lying face down.
He looked up to the door to make sure Piper hasn't come back yet, and turned it around.
The glass was broken. Through it, he could see Piper with a man's hand around her shoulder. Then man was Tony.
"Ready to go?" Piper's voice came. She was looking at the frame held in Leo's hands.
"Yeah." Leo put it down and followed her out after saying his goodbye to Grams.
A lot happened in Piper's life since he last saw her, and Leo wanted to know more about it. And when Leo wanted something, he always got it.
AN: This chapter was probably not as good… but no matter if you liked it or not don't forget to review… Please. Feel free to criticize; it will only improve the chapters to come. Thank you!